Coupled with thunderstorms in the region, there has been considerable damage to the area, and many support staff to the Dakar Rally have been cutoff from the bivouac, and will have to travel an extra 200km to region the traveling circus.

In order to provide assistance to affected locals, and to allow race teams to regroup, Wednesday will not be spent racing. Instead, teams will regroup in Chilecito, where they will start Stage 10, which will end in San Juan.

A 1 day postponement would be a great solution… keep the plan, but hold up where necessary. This year has seen so many shortened and cancelled stages. However, extra days mean unplanned cost, media spot issues etc. At the end of the day, the world’s toughest race status is secondary to the ‘business’ of racing.

Hornet

well i had hope HRC would be able to claw their way back but these cancellations and shortening of the race surely means its game over. Shame for them as the bike currently has the reliability to match and Barreda seems to the fastest rider out there by a mile. Oh well, onto 2018 then

Sayyed Bashir

Barreda has always been a fast rider but has not been consistent. The Dakar is not won by the fastest rider but by the consistent rider, for example Marc Coma. Also Barreda’s bike was the only one to shut down in the middle of the mud puddle.

paulus

Honda’s recovery from the penalty has been epic. I was hoping to see how Honda fared in reliability… it needs the demand of the last week to do that. The last couple of years have seen Honda field many riders… just to spend nights sacrificing the best remaining engine to transplant to their front runner…. All whilst KTM’s guys got a good nights sleep and rocked on with the same engine they started on.